Fugitive's involvement in Gustafsen Lake was political, judge says

Southam News

A U.S. court has refused to extradite a Canadian fugitive because of the "political character" of his crimes when he was part of a native uprising against the government.

James Pitawanakwat was entitled to protection under the Extradition Treaty because the natives were fighting the government for sacred and unceded tribal land and, therefore, the matter was political, the court ruled.

Canada was seeking the extradition of Pitawanakwat, who was arrested in Oregon on June 20, for violating his parole following offences during the Gustafsen Lake incident in British Columbia in 1995.

During the summer of that year, a group of natives and their supporters claimed title to a piece of private ranchland they said encompassed a contested parcel of sacred land.

Seventeen people were arrested during the two month standoff between the "Ts'peten Defenders" and 400 RCMP officers.

Pitawanakwat was arrested after firing a rifle into the air at a police helicopter and riding a vehicle carrying an AK-47 assault rifle. He was convicted and sentenced in 1997 to three years for mischief causing danger and one year for possession of a weapon.

After serving nearly a year in jail, Pitawanakwat was released on parole. But, after fleeing to the U.S., Canada sought his extradition to serve the 702 days remaining on his sentence.

Pitawanakwat fought extradition in the U.S. court on the political ground that "he was part of an uprising by native people with both religious and political overtones."

Refusing the extradition request, U.S. Judge Janice Stewart said, "The incident involved an organized group of native people rising up in their homeland against the occupation by the Canadian government of their sacred and unceded tribal land."

The judge said that from Pitawanakwat's point of view, Gustafsen was not only part of a struggle of native people dating back to European colonialism but "was also part of a larger uprising in the summer of 1995 in Canada seeking sovereignty by indigenous peoples over their unceded lands." The judge mentioned tensions at Ipperwash, Ont., and Bella Coola, B.C.

Judge Stewart noted that while the U.S. State Department viewed no "revolution or rebellion in Canada in 1995," she did not agree with its conclusion.

She found Gustafsen "involved indigenous people rising up in their own land against the government of that land," adding that the "protest by the Ts'peten Defenders was directed largely at the Canadian government ... and its military forces."

In her written judgment, she said the actions of the defendant and others in 1995 "clearly played a role in prompting Canada and British Columbia in 1996 to begin intensive negotiations with more than 40 Indian councils and nations."

She added that it led to the historic Nisga'a agreement, stressing the negotiations "may not have been successful without the impetus provided by the Lake Gustafsen incident and other incidents by native people during the summer of 1995."

Judge Stewart likened Pitawanakwat's case to other separatist movements around the world, including the Provisional Irish Republican Army in Ireland, the Tamils in Sri Lanka, the Basques of Spain, as well as various insurrections in Eastern Europe and Africa.

Judge Stewart concluded by writing, "Although Canada seeks [the] defendant's return only for a parole violation, this court concludes that defendant's crimes for which he was convicted and later paroled were 'of a political character' and therefore may not provide the basis for extradition of defendant to Canada."